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Student Misbehaviors and Teacher Techniques in Online Classrooms: Instrument Student Misbehaviors and Teacher Techniques in Online Classrooms: Instrument Development and Validation A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Scripps College of Communication of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Li Li August 2012 © 2012 Li Li. All Rights Reserved. This dissertation titled Student Misbehaviors and Teacher Techniques in Online Classrooms: Instrument Development and Validation by LI LI has been approved for the School of Communication Studies and the Scripps College of Communication by Scott Titsworth Associate Professor of Communication Studies Scott Titsworth Interim Dean, Scripps College of Communication ii ABSTRACT LI, LI, Ph.D., August 2012, Communication Studies Student Misbehaviors and Teacher Techniques in Online Classrooms: Instrument Development and Validation Director of Dissertation: Scott Titsworth In an attempt to better understand communication dimensions of classroom management, an extensive amount of literature in communication has explored compliance-gaining strategies used by teachers (e.g., Kearney, Plax, Richmond, & McCroskey, 1985; McCroskey & Richmond, 1983; Richmond& McCroskey, 1984). The purpose of this project was to partially replicate and extend that line of research to an online context. Specifically, the current program of research included three studies that developed a scale of students’ online misbehaviors (the SOMs scale), a scale of online teacher alteration techniques (the OBATs scale), and then explored relationships between those scales and various classroom communication processes and outcomes. The pilot study inductively developed initial typologies for the two scales. The second study further refined the SOMs scale by employing both an exploratory factor analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis. Four factors were established: Seeking Unallowed Assistance, Internet Slacking, Aggressiveness, and Lack of Communication. No meaningful factor structure was detected from the OBATs scale, which was consistent to the BATs and BAMs scale. Reliability and validity were established for both scales. Subsequently, the main study assessed teachers’ and students’ different perceptions of SOMs and OBATs, the impact of demographics on these perceptions, and the influence of SOMs and OBATs to students’ learning. Results indicated students and teachers iii perceived SOMs and OBATs differently; certain demographics (e.g., prior online classes, student age, class size, and enrollment status) influenced perceptions of uses and severity of SOMs as well as uses and effectiveness of OBATs; finally selective OBATs influenced students’ learning whereas SOMs did so minimally in students’ perception. Approved: _____________________________________________________________ Scott Titsworth Associate Professor of Communication Studies iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have been brewing and “marinating” how to say the right “thank you” for a long time and I realize that I could never thank enough people or express enough appreciation for what I have gained along my journey of getting a doctoral degree. However, I do want to adventure to extend my heartfelt gratitude to a few of you. Dr. Scott Titsworth, this dissertation is for you. I am greatly indebted to you, my dear academic adviser, for your patience, earnest help and invaluable suggestions I have immeasurably benefited from. Without your guidance, the completion of this dissertation would never have been possible. Or should I say—I had never even thought about pursuing a doctoral degree before I met you in the summer of 2006. You opened an amazing door in my life and helped me make initial baby steps to map those new territories. You have offered me everything that I could have ever asked for from an advisor: theory synthesizing, research method conduction, scholarly writing, welcoming dinners, individual meetings, reminder emails, humor, immediacy, clarity, and many more. You waited so patiently and confidently for me to regain my strength in learning and growing as a communication scholar. You have rocked my world—I know I will continue acquiring from you, an honorable model teacher and scholar. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my committee members: Drs. Jerry Miller, Mirit Shoham, and Gordon Brooks. Thank you so much for your willingness to serve on my committee. I feel truly thankful for your always responsive communication, generous time commitment, and insightful suggestions. Dr. Miller, thank you for your constant support and encouragement along my writing process as well as the argument writing skills that I have obtained from your rhetoric and content analysis v classes. Dr. Shoham, thank you for the great opportunities that you provided for me to learn persuasion theories and practices, for your detailed edits of my papers, all the hugs, and the Asian Mafia dinners that you have organized to make me feel at home even in another country. Dr. Brooks, thanks for making the intimidating statistical research method classes such a pleasant experience. Thank you for your patient answers to all my questions, the wonderful printouts, and very practical term projects that helped me criticize research questions and research methods in academic papers—the method section of this dissertation is a salute to you! In addition to my committee, I would like to extend my gratitude to two more faculty members who taught me in my first year at Ohio University. Dr. Lynn Harter, thank you for sharing your life stories when you were a graduate student—that has been the first time of me experiencing a professor’s self-disclosure, which means so much to me. I knew I was not alone when sometimes I felt frustrated. Your pointed me to the light at the end of the tunnel—your encouraging words, smiles, hugs, passion, and witty comments (on my digital recorder) have absolutely lightened my first-year study. Dr. Judith Lee, thank you for your persistent and patient help to guide me through writing my first term paper at Ohio University. You are among one of the best teachers who are both very strict and wonderful. I would also like to thank several graduate students and alumni for their help and support along my dissertation data collection and writing process. Mike Parsons, thank you for working with me for several afternoons, teaching me how to properly employ LISREL 8.8, and interpret the CFA results. Jeff Kuznekoff, thank you for those delightful breaks that we held constantly in our office to talk about dissertation puzzles and vi progresses. Mike and Jeff, I also enjoyed our walks to Fluff and small talks on the street. Abbey Wojno and Anne Gerbensky-Kerber, thank you for helping me recruit participants for the surveys even when you were away from Athens! Laura Russel, thank you for the great dissertation writing tips—the nicely formatted calendar and the writing dairies are becoming my scholarly routines. People from various departments and offices of Ohio University as well as from other universities have also helped me immensely. Molly Prudenti, thank you for being a nice friend and colleague! I truly appreciate your help of connecting with eCampus staff to disseminate my surveys. I also enjoyed those beautiful evenings when we walked Sunny along the bike path, and the numerous lunches and dinners that we have had in so many places of Athens. Ms. Pam Brown, thank you for meeting with me to go through my initial IRB proposal applications and to provide great insights to format my recruiting letters. Ms. Kelly Czack, thank you for helping me make the survey available to over 1,000 online students. Dr. Masato Nakazawa, thank you for frequently checking on my understanding of CFA procedures, and linking me with other faculty members on campus. Yu Zhang, thank you not only for helping me recruiting every single acquaintances that you have for my data collection, but also for bringing various toys to my apartment to cheer me up. Last, to the people that I have never met and do not know personally, for your unselfish help and generous contribution to the data collection. Finally, I would like to thank my families. Dear mom and dad, thank you for allowing me to be selfishly pursuing my academic goals in a remote place. This past year has been especially difficult for both of you because of mom’s illness; however, you encouraged me to come back to the States to resume my dissertation writing. Even vii though “love” is never a vocal word in our family, you communicated it well using your heart. Please take care of yourselves so that I can compete with time to fulfill my filial responsibilities and to offer you a better living condition. Thank you, my brother, for giving up so many job opportunities to solely taking care of our parents when I am away. I could have never imagined how I could finish this project without you. I owe you so many thanks! Zhe Yu, my dear husband, I had never known that I could be so loved before I met you. You left everything behind you in China to be my company even though you could not speak a single complete English sentence when you first got here. I always remember those numerous long nights that you slept on my office floor when I was trying to meet the deadlines. I could never forget how you patiently quizzed me for the prelims, the back massages that you learned from youtube to calm my nerves, the wonderful warm homemade meals that you offered to make me a gourmet, and funny pranks you played on me to make life enjoyable. Your patience, support, and love have
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